How can enterprise annuities benefit more employees?

　　This newspaper reported that the amount of enterprise annuity accumulation exceeded 3 trillion yuan for the first time.

　　Recently, the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security released data showing that by the end of 2023, the amount of enterprise annuity accumulation in the country exceeded 3 trillion yuan for the first time, reaching 3.19 trillion yuan, and 31.44 million employees participated. Compared with the number of people participating in basic pension insurance, the participation rate of enterprise annuity is still low.

　　So, how to motivate more enterprises to join this system and better protect the life of employees after retirement? What is the future development space of enterprise annuity?

Only 8% of the participants

　　On May 1, 2004, the "Trial Measures for Enterprise Annuity" and the "Trial Measures for the Management of Enterprise Annuity Funds" were officially implemented, and it has been 20 years.

　　The so-called enterprise annuity refers to the supplementary endowment insurance established by the enterprise and its employees on the basis of participating in the basic endowment insurance; When employees retire, they can receive an extra pension money. Enterprise annuity is known as the "second pillar" of pension, which refers to the supplementary pension insurance system voluntarily established by enterprises and their employees on the basis of participating in basic pension insurance in accordance with the law.

　　The annual contribution of the enterprise shall not exceed 8% of the total wages of the employees of the enterprise in the previous year, and the total contribution of the enterprise and the individual employees shall not exceed 12% of the total wages of the employees of the enterprise in the previous year.

　　Jin Weigang, deputy dean of the Institute of National System Research of Zhejiang University, said that in the past 20 years, enterprise annuities have grown from scratch and continued to grow. Now many retired workers have received enterprise annuities, which is equivalent to an additional guarantee in addition to the basic pension insurance benefits, and the role of supplementing the total pension has initially appeared. However, from the perspective of coverage, the development of the enterprise annuity system is not sufficient, and it has not been able to play its due role in the multi-level pension insurance system.

　　By the end of 2023, enterprise annuities have been established in more than 140,000 enterprises across the country, and the proportion of participating enterprises is significantly lower than the total number of more than 180 million business entities.

　　Du Zhifeng, deputy director of the pension insurance department of the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Human Resources and Social Security, also said that in view of the relationship between the sluggish investment environment in recent years and the enhancement of the attractiveness of annuities, the human resources and social security departments, the financial sector and investment institutions should be coordinated to attract more enterprises to establish annuities with long-term and stable investment returns.

　　Financial enterprises are an indispensable component of enterprise annuity investment, and their functions include annuity trusteeship, custody, investment management and account management, covering institutions including banks, insurance, funds, securities firms, trusts, etc.

　　The summary of the business data of the national enterprise annuity fund in 2023 shows that the institutions with the top enterprise annuity trustee management scale are Chinese Life Pension, Ping An Pension, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, etc., the top institutions with the highest number of account management are Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, Bank of China, Chinese Life Pension, etc., the top institutions with the largest scale of custody funds are Industrial and Commercial Bank, China Construction Bank, Bank of China, and the top institutions with investment management assets are Taikang Assets, Chinese Life Pension, and Ping An Pension.

　　At the Central Financial Work Conference held at the end of October 2023, it was proposed to do a good job in science and technology finance, green finance, inclusive finance, pension finance, and digital finance.

　　Zheng Gongcheng, president of the Chinese Social Security Association, said that enterprise annuities in Germany, the United States and other countries can cover about half of the employed population, and the number of mainland enterprise annuities accounts for only 8% of the total number of employees who are eligible for insurance; With the addition of occupational pensions, the coverage rate of the second pillar is 15%. This gap is not only related to the high level of protection of the first pillar of basic pension insurance in the mainland and the short establishment time of the second pillar, but also shows that the development of enterprise annuity is still insufficient, and the future space is huge.

　　Enterprise annuity is an important part of the multi-level pension system, but also a product with great potential in the pension finance, whether it is from the needs of people's livelihood and improve the pension system, or based on the goal of building a financial power, we should pay attention to the development of enterprise annuity.

　　Hu Xiaoyi, president of the China Social Insurance Society, said that in addition to the weak profitability and weak contribution ability of some enterprises, many enterprises have little understanding of the enterprise annuity policy, or mistakenly believe that they can be replaced by future earnings such as options and equity. There are also some private enterprises that are forced to give up because they do not adapt to the relevant procedures and rules, even if they have the ability and willingness to pay. Some small and micro enterprises are deterred by the lack of professional operations, frequent employee turnover, and difficulties in the renewal of enterprise annuity relationships. These are all practical problems that hinder the effective expansion of enterprise annuities.

　　On the other hand, enterprise annuities are also affected by employees' willingness to participate. According to Du Zhifeng, deputy director of the pension insurance department of the Beijing Municipal Human Resources and Social Security Bureau, the increased mobility of workers, the willingness of employees to pursue short-term benefits rather than long-term hidden benefits, and the pursuit of free and flexible working methods by young people have impacted the relatively traditional operating mechanism of annuities. How to adapt to the new workplace relationship and the changing employment situation should be the next direction of adjustment of the annuity system.

Industry experts: continue to optimize the development environment of enterprise annuities

　　It is worth noting that compared with the scale of participation in the basic pension insurance for urban employees, the current coverage rate of enterprise annuity is not high.

　　So, how to promote the development of enterprise annuity?

　　Mao Pengyue, deputy director of the Zhejiang Provincial Department of Human Resources and Social Security, shared at the meeting the specific measures of Zhejiang to promote the development of enterprise annuities, to lower the entry threshold, expand coverage, and encourage qualified cities and counties to provide payment subsidies for employers and individuals. In addition, private enterprises are encouraged to combine their own characteristics, starting from a low proportion and a small range, giving priority to the establishment of enterprise annuities for people with outstanding contributions, and gradually rolling them out.

　　Hu Qiuming, vice president of the Pension Branch of the China Social Security Association and deputy dean and professor of the School of Insurance of Southwestern University of Finance and Economics, said that at present, it is necessary to promote industrial transformation and upgrading and improve the level of human capital accumulation, help enterprise annuity to expand its coverage and inclusiveness, give full play to the productivity effect, corporate governance effect and tax preferential effect of enterprise annuity, and realize the functional positioning of enterprise annuity in the multi-level pension security system.

　　Zheng Gongcheng said that it is necessary to further reduce the burden of employers to pay basic pension insurance premiums, let the enterprise annuity management return to the market, support small and medium-sized enterprises or small and micro enterprises, as well as individual industrial and commercial households, social organizations, etc., to establish or jointly establish enterprise annuities, etc., and continue to expand the coverage of enterprise annuities through innovative mechanisms.

　　Secondly, the establishment of a multi-level pension insurance system is to cope with the aging of the population and promote the sustainable development of the pension insurance system.

　　Zheng Gongcheng emphasized that it is necessary to continue to optimize the development environment of enterprise annuity and strive to promote the innovation of enterprise annuity products. Although the enterprise annuity has a policy nature, it is still a financial product in general, and as a product, it should give full play to the effect of the product, that is, to attract more customers by increasing the added value, which is the only way.

　　Since the implementation of the enterprise annuity system, there has been a considerable policy foundation and practical foundation, and the direction of optimization is to strengthen the mandatory and convenient participation, the incentive and convenience of the policy content, and the incentive and universality of the policy content.

　　To this end, Hu Xiaoyi put forward six suggestions: first, re-examine the positioning of the enterprise annuity system; the second is to attach great importance to policy publicity; the third is to gradually increase the compulsion of the system; Fourth, the establishment conditions and thresholds are simplified in a targeted manner; fifth, optimize the policy design of each link; Sixth, strengthen the construction of the platform, including the construction of a unified national annuity information platform, and the establishment of a public enterprise annuity management service platform.